Brilliant discussion between a scientist and a Buddhist scholar

[molosku]

First Carrol (scientist) gets a say, and then Wallace (the Buddhist guy).

After listening Wallace's reply to Carrol, my first thought was "how is he ever going to recover from that..." But he does, of course, as it's not about the strength and clarity of the arguments, it's about the receivers inability to make a solid bridge between open mindedness and critical thinking. He thought he understood what Wallace was saying, but actually he completely missed the biggest, the most central point he was trying to deliver, that he spent all that time building his case for. Carrol points out lots of interesting insights and points of view also! He just has a temporal case of the external reality flu, that's all.

Part of the reason why this is SO so hard to communicate, is in the language. Wallace accidentally gives validity to materialism with innocent sounding wordings, like "consciousness is not new stuff. It's been here long before scientist started talking about it" thus giving validity to reality beyond experience, or consciousness itself. This is where spiritual teachers come into picture. To be REALLY able to teach and talk about this, you HAVE to have a solid experience of it. And even then, it's very tricky.

Definitely worth a watch! I could quote many interesting parts from here, but I think it's better to just listen to the talk.

 

 

Edited August 25, 2018 by molosku

[here-now]

Thanks for posting this! 

My favorite part:  43'44" through 45'12"

[molosku]

@here-now

"Hippie roasts scientist in 3 minutes LOL Must watch Funny!"

[here-now]